Leslie Anjan's blog

  As a product line, Microsoft Office dates back nearly three decades, with early versions essentially combining Word, Excel, and PowerPoint into a discounted bundle. Microsoft 365 (previously known as Office 365), which has been available since 2011, differs from that old-fashioned bundle in two respects: First, it's sold as a subscription (billed monthly or yearly), rather than as a perpetual license with a fixed one-time payment. Second, it combines a suite of online services, including business-class email, cloud file storage, and secure communication tools along with the traditional desktop apps. Because it's a subscription offering, those desktop programs are updated automatically when a new version is available. If your subscription is current, you get the latest versions, with security releases monthly  and feature updates every six months, on the same calendar as Windows 10. Microsoft 365 is available in Family and Personal editions (previously known as Office 36...

  Did you know that it’s possible to have your chatbot in Microsoft Teams send a message to a user proactively? That means, rather than waiting for the user to chat to the bot, the bot can be the first one to message them. Proactive chatbots have several useful business applications, chief among them is that they can anticipate customer needs and improve customer satisfaction. In this blog, I’ll show you how to create a proactive chatbot using Power Virtual Agents and Power Automate. Did you know that it’s possible to have your chatbot in Microsoft Teams send a message to a user proactively? That means, rather than waiting for the user to chat to the bot, the bot can be the first one to message them. Proactive chatbots have several useful business applications, chief among them is that they can anticipate customer needs and improve customer satisfaction. In this blog, I’ll show you how to create a proactive chatbot using Power Virtual Agents and Power Automate. This is the flow t...

Software-as-a-service CRM giant Salesforce has made its app for Microsoft Teams more broadly available. The Salesforce app for Teams has been available in preview since October. It replicates the Salesforce CRM app for Slack, allowing joint Teams and Salesforce customers to mention various Salesforce records in Teams channels and chats, such as opportunities, accounts, cases, contacts, and leads. Service teams can also improve coordination and response times to open cases to help keep customers happy, reduce the support loads, and cut out productivity barriers caused by switching between Teams and Salesforce. Announcing the general availability of Salesforce for Teams, Microsoft described Salesforce as part of a "new class" of "collaborative apps".  Salesforce and Microsoft compete in CRM – Microsoft Dynamics versus Sales Cloud – and analytics with Tableau and Microsoft PowerBI.  While the Slack purchase opened up a new front of competition between Salesforce and Mi...

In the month of November 21 Microsoft announced new broadcast capabilities enhanced live captions, as well as some of the newly certified devices with Teams capabilities, and more. Here are some details: Integrated Communication Access Realtime Translation ART captioning in meetings You can now view captions coming from a CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) provider within the Microsoft Teams meeting window instead of a secondary window. Follow along with what is being said without having to choose between the captions and presentation. Meeting organizers and participants can enable CART captions from their meeting options.  Learn more . Content from camera Content from camera in Teams enables intelligent capture which allows you to share content from physical whiteboards and documents in a high-quality way during meetings. You can use the camera in your laptop, a secondary USB webcam, or a document camera. Just like the experience available in Microsoft Teams Rooms, t...

How can it help you maximise the use of existing infrastructure and investment – specifically Office 365 and MS Teams, to address your current challenges and accelerate your journey to get to the next level of Digital Maturity Model of engagement  To explain that, lets first look at the traditional method of developing and delivering systems without delving too much into the different methodologies. Typically, the business would capture their requirements, and then decide to build (develop and validate) or buy (select and off the shelf application and configure it), then implement the system. Typically, this would take a significant time from start to finish. This may still be the route for implementing large scale deployments e.g. implementing a Manufacturing Execution System. But in terms of the following use cases, is there a new way : Automating a business process or workflow, that is largely paper based, involves people interacting with several systems, and also using tools li...

The shift to remote work over the last 18 months is one of the most significant changes in work culture. To understand how this change is impacting our customers and our employees, we’ve been conducting regular meetings & surveys. One of the latest survey data shows that last year that 70% of employees worked from home at some point. But there’s no guarantee this trend will continue in the increasingly complex world of hybrid work. For starters, employee expectations have changed. Last year’s Work Trend Index report showed that while 73 percent of employees want the option to continue to work remotely, 67 percent want more in-person engagement. This hybrid work paradox is our new normal, and our ability to come together will be challenging without preparation. As employees settle into a mode where they’re splitting time between in-person and remote work,  most organisations are not prepared.  Hybrid work is hard. Remote attendees are finding themselves unseen and unhea...

We have been hearing lately that – how an organisation can maximise their return with existing infrastructure to accelerate the digital transformation. But what can it do for you? How can it help you maximise the use of existing infrastructure and investment – specifically Office 365 and MS Teams, to address your current challenges and accelerate your journey to get to the next level of Digital Maturity. To explain that, lets first look at the traditional method of developing and delivering systems without delving too much into the different methodologies. Typically, the business would capture their requirements, and then decide to build (develop and validate) or buy (select and off the shelf application and configure it), then implement the system. Typically, this would take a significant time from start to finish. This may still be the route for implementing large scale deployments e.g. implementing a Manufacturing Execution System. But in terms of the following use cases, is the...

The outbreak and rapid spread of COVID-19, commonly known as coronavirus, has prompted many companies to implement emergency work-from-home protocols to avoid exposure in the workplace. Due to this many businesses now encouraging or even mandating that employees work from home amid this global health crisis over the coronavirus, millions of people can expect to have their daily routines and work styles impacted. But not everyone is accustomed to working from home and getting into work mode from a space that’s not your regular one can be a huge adjustment. The bright side of working from home is that you save time on a commute, spend more time with family, and maybe get a few more things done around the house. But the challenges, including loneliness, staying connected, and a heightened penchant for distraction, can have a significant effect on your psyche and productivity. If your company has never had a full-time remote workforce, this can be a challenging transition. However, t...

Recent times, things have changed for good. Working from home has become the norm. Microsoft have announced some major new features coming to Microsoft Teams, focused on improving the virtual interactions that continue to be a defining aspect of many of our lives during the ongoing global COVID-19 response. These new features have been directly guided by research that Microsoft has undertaken with experts in virtual reality, AI and productivity, and are intended to provide a more natural and engaging online meeting experience. Here are some of the features identified. Together mode The most significant change comes with the introduction of ‘Together mode’ – an entirely new meeting experience which uses AI to display all meeting participants on a shared virtual background, as though you’re sitting in the same room with everyone else. The ability to see everyone’s faces, read body language and easily see who’s talking in a more realistic setting is set to make all kinds of meetin...

Microsoft recently announced a new service called Dataflex. In short, it is a data platform for low-code apps that can be built right within Microsoft Teams. This is a brand new commercial offering and it comes bundled with every subscription of Office 365 / Microsoft 365 that includes the right to use Teams. Microsoft Dataflex delivers a built-in, low-code data platform for Teams, and provides relational data storage, rich data types, enterprise grade governance, and one-click solution deployment. Microsoft Dataflex enables everyone to easily build and deploy apps and intelligent chatbots in Teams with Microsoft Power Apps and Microsoft Power Virtual Agents.  Extension of DataFlex Pro. So what is Dataflex Pro? At the same time, Dataflex Pro became the new name for what used to be called Common Data Service (CDS). For those who are more familiar with Power Platform technology, you’ll know that CDS has served as the foundation for building your custom Power Apps as w...